Dutch tax authorities cancel Microsoft 365 cloud rollout – and turn toward open source
Another European move toward digital sovereignty has curtailed adopting the US workplace suite.
The Dutch Tax and Customs Administration has abandoned its planned Microsoft 365 public-cloud rollout, shifting instead to an on-premises/open-source approach. This decision comes after the Linux Foundation released a report revealing that 94% of European Union organizations prioritize digital sovereignty, with 61% considering it very important.
The Netherlands is not alone in this move; other European governments, including Austria, France, Germany, and Ireland, have also made the transition to Linux and open-source solutions. The Dutch government had mandated a 2025-2026 rollout, but following a recommendation by the Dutch Advisory Council on ICT Assessment, the plan was halted in June and officially canceled in July.
The assessment highlighted concerns over information security, processing, future-proofing, data confidentiality, control, and encryption. The government plans to keep Microsoft Office for now, but will transition to on-premises email and calendar services by 2027, followed by European open-source solutions for personal storage and collaboration by 2027 and 2028.
The ICT assessment found that the Microsoft 365 design fell short in several areas, including information security and encryption. The government is concerned about sending confidential documents through American servers rather than government networks, as well as the encryption and end-to-end encryption features. The new approach will incorporate Linux distributions like NixOS, as well as desktop environments such as openDesk and MijnBureau.
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